Most retailers are kicking off their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales early, and Amazon is no exception. Among the various deals offered by the company are some of the top smartphones for just a penny.

"For a limited time only, all phones from Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T with a new line of service are on sale for a penny and include standard free two-day shipping," Amazon said on its Web site.

The deal started at midnight Pacific time yesterday and runs through 11:50pm Pacific on Nov. 28, or Cyber Monday. Those who activate the hotspot feature on eligible phones will also get a $100 Amazon.com gift card.

The Droid Razr and HTC Rezound normally retail for $299.99, while the Droid Bionic is $249.99 and the Samsung Galaxy S II is $199.99.

Other devices that landed in the 1-cent bin include: the Samsung Stratosphere, which is currently Verizon's only keyboarded 4G LTE smartphone; the BlackBerry Torch 4G 9810 for AT&T, which PCMag found to be "dramatically faster than previous BlackBerrys"; and the HTC Droid Incredible 2 for Verizon, which includes a slightly larger screen, global calling, and a smoother design than its predecessor.

Earlier this month, Amazon kicked off its "Countdown to Black Friday" event with lightning deals and discounts on electronics, games, and more. Yesterday, Best Buy also published its Black Friday doorbuster deals and Thanksgiving Day online sales.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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